Master Potter
by Scarred Sword Heart
Summary: Hiko's thoughts on Kenshin through the metaphor of pottery.


**Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is owned by the great Watsuki-sensei and the evil multimedia empires (Sony, Shueisha, ADV Media Blasters, Fuji TV and Viz). I am poor and will always be so despite my best writing skills. No suing please.**

* * *

><p>A vase is good for one thing, holding something in it. Whether it be water or the most expensive sake, the vase must be sturdy and have no cracks or holes, or the liquid will leak out and be lost.<p>

To make such a fine and strong vessel, a master potter is needed. He must take the clay and mold it into the proper shape. Then he must heat it at just the right temperature in the kiln for the clay to harden into a vase.

When this is done, the vase is left to cool until it's cool enough to touch. It is then glazed and painted with all kinds of pretty decorations such as blossoms or cranes. Then it is ready to sell and hold whatever liquids its owner sees fit to pour into it.

Hiko Seijuro XIII was a master potter. No, he was THE master potter. Every other potter in Japan could only wish their work were as excellent as his. All of Hiko's works were perfect. They were strong and sturdy, with neither holes nor cracks in them.

The only vessel Hiko had ever had trouble with wasn't made of clay, but of flesh. Decades earlier, Hiko had saved a small boy from certain death and renamed him in the tradition of the warrior. Hiko had then taken the young boy and molded him from a frightened child into a fine young swordsman.

Hiko had to make the young swordsman strong enough and fine enough to hold within him the sword style of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, which was a very powerful style that only the strongest of swordsmen could hold. Weaker swordsman would crack from it, both mentally and physically.

Unlike molding a vase, which can be accomplished in a day, the molding of the young warrior took years of patience and frustration on Hiko's part. Sometimes the clay wouldn't center properly. Other times, there was too much throw and the clay wouldn't settle right.

But as Hiko continued with his art, he could see the strong vessel the youngster would one day be.

One day though, the young vessel came uncentered and no matter how much Hiko tried, he couldn't get it to recenter. The vessel believed itself strong and fine enough to carry its precious contents into a bloody war. In the end, Hiko couldn't recenter the vessel and declared it a failed work.

Fifteen years passed, during which Hiko created other vases and urns, all of them fine and perfect and sold them. Yet not a day went by that he didn't think of the one that he had been unable to finish. Had it been able to carry its contents, or had it cracked and lost everything?

One day, out of the blue, the vessel showed up again. Hiko had only to look at it and see cracks everywhere. Cracks from 15 years of fighting and wandering; the vessel wavering between strength and weakness. It was on the verge of breaking completely. Hiko was about to reject the vessel and throw it on the heap. Why should he remold a cracked vessel that had uncentered itself and refused his crafting in the first place? It wasn't his responsibility!

Then the partakers of the vessel's contents had shown up and confronted him. After sending the errant work out to collect water, Hiko learned from the partakers that the vessel had in fact been carrying the precious contents in it all along and that they had been able to drink deeply of it. Some of Hiko's good work on it was still there. Hiko decided that he would rework the vessel.

Hiko took the vessel, broke it and remolded it. He got all the cracks out of the clay and molded it with extra water, making it stronger than ever. He then fired it in the kiln of his training and wisdom. Finally, he poured in new training, which almost cost him his life.

In the end, the vessel was remade, better than ever. With the precious contents in it, it was able to quell the fire of a demon that wanted to turn all Japan into a sea of flame. When Hiko next saw his precious work, it had been cracked again, this time not in spirit, but in body.

With the help of its friends, the cracks disappeared and the little vessel was healed. On his last visit with the vessel, Hiko warned it that should it weaken again, he would not remold it a second time. Then he turned and went back to his other clay creations.


End file.
